[Solved] Server on mobile computer with changing IP

ℹ️ Support
1

I want to sync of my phone with Thunderbird contacts and calendar on my notebook while I am on the road, not having my own domain.

Several solutions have been discussed on the list:

But the instructions are not clear to me. Can somebody point me to a step-by-step guide please?

Thank You very much for this fantastic piece of software!

Nextcloud version 11.0.3
OS Ubuntu 17.04
Thunderbird CardBook/21.1 Lightning/5.4

2

Ciao Christiann,
I suppose you have a NC installation at home or at work, and you want to “keep in touch” with it from outside.

  1. First of all, I suggest you to protect your webserver with a SSL certificate (httpS://…) since you want to access it from outside.
    https://duckduckgo.com/?q=self+signed+ssl+apache&t=canonical&ia=web
    (IF you use apache)

  2. then you have to configure your home/office router to redirect outside connections to your internal server (each router has its own procedure)
    for examples: NC:443 <-> privateIP--publicIP :44443 <-> client_on_the_road
    443: standard https/ssl port,
    44443: non-standard port (just to clean a little bit your webserver-log from port-scan attack, not a security reason)

  3. then you have to create and account on one of the many Dynamic DNS services online, and configure an hostname to point to your external IP router (your router must update dynDNS entry each time its change)
    https://duckduckgo.com/?q=dynamic++dns+free&t=canonical&ia=web

  4. in NC configure a calendar, call it “test” (for example)
    click on “…” (3 dots) beside the calendar’s name, and choose "link"
    copy that link

  5. open your calendar (lighting or other ICS/DAV compatible calendar) and create a new calendar -> online (not local) -> CalDAV format and type the web-address of your NC-calendar

  6. insert login and password

done! :slight_smile:

3

You introduce a few challenges if you’re suggesting having NC run on the local machine you take from network to network, and I’d say that is likely not feasible simply because you have no control over the networks outside of your home (and, very possibly, work). You’ll need 443 access to your PC any time you wish to sync to it.

A better, though costlier, option would be to either run a RPi at home or invest in a small VPS with a trusted provider on which you can install Nextcloud and have static access to it from anywhere.

Feel free to provide more details around your thoughts.

4

My workaround is to change my notebook’s IP temporarily with

  1. sudo ifconfig wlp2s0 192.168.1.200 netmask 255.255.255.0
  2. This allows me to synch Nextcloud between my phone and my notebook.
  3. To reconnect to the internet I disable/enable my WLAN connection on my notebook.

This is a workaround only, tks Paolo and Jason for the your long answer.